Photo Credit: Little Joe
Picture of Sara Hazinski in 2011

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

For this year’s Champs, the table tennis firepower only gets stronger and stronger. With elite college athletes that are already USA and Canada National team members, there’s the potential that they may clinch multiple titles in Round Rock.

Some of the hottest contenders for triple crown (winners of Singles, Doubles, and Coed Team) or even quadruple crown (given women athletes can play in both Women’s and Coed Team events, add the Women’s team to the mix!) are Canadian international student Jeremy Hazin representing defending Coed Champs NYU, and NCTTA newcomers, but no strangers to the table, UCLA’s Amy Wang and Rachel Sung. Wang and Sung placed in the top two of National Team trials the weekend prior and are in top form to be quadruple threats.

Let us not forget also power women’s duo Zhen Deng and Jiaqi Lin, defending champs of both the Texas Wesleyan University Women’s Team and Women’s Doubles titles.

Indeed, the 2023 NCTTA Champs, could possibly usher in a new era of dominance.

According to de facto NCTTA historian/resident webmaster Dan Wang,

“For the closest a woman came to sweeping all possible NCTTA titles, from what I can think of and have been able to check - in 2011, Sara Hazinski won Women's Singles, Women's Team, Coed Team, and Mixed Doubles, but lost in the Women's Doubles final to Lindenwood (who also prevented her from winning Women's Team and Women's Doubles in 2010).” That means on the women’s side there hasn’t been a quadruple crown winner for more than 10 years!

An interesting tidbit, Jasna Rather current coach of Texas Wesleyan, was able to obtain a plethora of Collegiate Table Tennis event wins back in 2007: Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, Women's Singles (which were ACUI not NCTTA events) plus the NCTTA events Coed and Women. A feat for the ages.

So let the games begin for the crème de la crème of NCTTA athletes to make a name for themselves in the history books!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org